The Ancient Allan eBook

CHAPTER VIII

THE LADY
AMADA

Now day by day, hour by hour and minute by minute
every detail of that journey appeared before me, but
to set it all down is needless. As I, Allan Quatermain,
write the record of my vision, still I seem to hear
the thunder of our horses’ hoofs while we rushed
forward at full gallop over the plains, over the mountain
passes and by the banks of rivers. The speed
at which we travelled was wonderful, for at intervals
of about forty miles were post-houses and at these,
whatever might be the hour of day or night, we found
fresh horses from the King’s stud awaiting us.
Moreover, the postmasters knew that we were coming,
which astonished me until we discovered that they had
been warned of our arrival by two King’s messengers
who travelled ahead of us.

These men, it would seem, although our officers and
guides professed ignorance of the matter, must have
left the King’s palace at dawn on the day of
our departure, whereas we did not mount in the city
till a little after noon. Therefore they had
six hours good start of us, and what is more, travelled
lighter than we did, having no sumpter beasts with
them, and no cooks or servants. Moreover, always
they had the pick of the horses and chose the three
swiftest beasts, leading the third in case one of
their own should founder or meet with accident.
Thus it came about that we never caught them up although
we covered quite a hundred miles a day. Only
once did I see them, far off upon the skyline of a
mountain range which we had to climb, but by the time
we had reached its crest they were gone.

At length we came to the desert without accident and
crossed it, though more slowly. But even here
the King had his posts which were in charge of Arabs
who lived in tents by wells of water, or sometimes
where there was none save what was brought to them.
So still we galloped on, parched by the burning sand
beneath and the burning sand above, and reached the
borders of Egypt.

Here, upon the very boundary line, the two officers
halted the cavalcade saying that their orders were
to return thence and make report to the King.
There then we parted, Bes and I with the six hunters
who still chose to cling to me, going forward and the
officers of the King with the guides and servants
going back. The good horses that we rode from
the last post they gave to us by the King’s command,
together with the sumpter beasts, since horses broken
to the saddle were hard to come by in Egypt where
they were trained to draw chariots. These we
took, sending back my thanks to the King, and started
on once more, Bes leading that beast which bore the
gold and the hunters serving as a guard.

Indeed I was glad to see the last of those Easterns
although they had brought us safely and treated us
well, for all the while I was never sure but that
they had some orders to lead us into a trap, or perhaps
to make away with us in our sleep and take back the
gold and the priceless, rose-hued pearls, any two
of which were worth it all. But such was not
their command nor did they dare to steal them on their
own account, since then, even if they escaped the vengeance
of the King, their wives and all their families would
have paid the price.